The partial US government shutdown ended late Tuesday after President Donald Trump signed into law a funding deal he negotiated with Senate Democrats, overcoming opposition from both ends of the political spectrum amid a standoff over his administration's immigration crackdown.
Trump applauded the funding package as “a great victory for the American people” and stressed that the legislation continues to fund deportation flights, which have provoked backlash from Democrats.
Still, a more limited funding lapse looms within days since the Department of Homeland Security is only funded through Feb. 13 while Trump negotiates with Democrats over their demands for new restraints on immigration enforcement agents. The rest of the government is funded through Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
A group of House conservatives had threatened to use procedural manoeuvres to block the deal, but relented after Trump demanded they vote to pass the measure.
“The president nailed it down,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, told reporters. “I'm glad we are all nails and there's one hammer.”
The shutdown fight erupted after a US citizen, Alex Pretti, was killed in a confrontation with Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis last month. Democrats refused to pass full-year funding for the Homeland Security Department unless new restraints were placed on immigration enforcement.
The spending bill passed the Senate last week, before the shutdown began at 12:01 am Saturday, and the House on Tuesday.
Some conservatives opposed the bill because they wanted to include changes to election laws that would have scuttled the measure in the Senate. Several conservatives also argued against approving the measure because it contains some spending increases and pet projects backed by Democrats.
Many Democrats voted against the bill because it funds the Homeland Security Department through Feb. 13 without imposing new restraints on immigration agents. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his lieutenants all voted against the deal negotiated by his counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.
Minnesota Democrat Angie Craig, who is running for the state's Senate seat, said before the vote that “unless they're gonna start to bring down the surge in Minnesota for real, I'm not voting for anything.”
Trump and Schumer worked out the deal to temporarily fund the department while both parties negotiate changes to enforcement policies. Democrats want immigration enforcement officers to forgo masks, wear body cameras and obtain warrants before entering private homes. They have also called for an end to immigration sweeps.
Trump implored House Republicans in a social media post Monday to pass the spending measure “IMMEDIATELY” with “NO CHANGES.”
Soon after, two conservative holdouts — Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Tim Burchett of Tennessee — said they agreed after a talk with the White House to end their threatened procedural blockade despite lingering concerns about the legislation itself.
“I don't understand why we took the deal that we took. There are tons of Democrat earmarks in the bill,” said Republican Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri.
While the funding lapse was minimal, the shutdown's effects had already begun to accumulate. The Labour Department announced Monday that its closely watched jobs report, due Friday, would be delayed. The tax filing season, which kicked off last week, risked being hampered. Non-essential government workers at several departments were furloughed.
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